The world is a weird place. Even stranger than Donald Trump, the guy from that Home Alone 2 cameo, becoming President of the United States, is the latest tech drama: phone case giant Spigen threatening to sue over Trump’s new phone supposedly stealing their product images and branding.
What is the T1 Trump Phone?
In June, Trump’s organisation announced that it would launch a mobile network called Trump Mobile and a “made in the USA” phone; the T1 Phone.
It was incredibly unclear at the time how much of the phone would be made in the USA, if any of it would be at all. Today, the product page states the phone is “brought to life right here in the USA. With American hands behind every device”, we bring care, precision, and trusted quality to every detail”.
This is the classic Apple approach. You know the one that says “Designed in California” but ultimately, “Assembled in China” rouse. The T1 Phone was another story to spin by the President of the United States. The same President that is happy to sell everything from Green Cards to gold shoes.
But taking a closer look at the marketing materials surrounding the T1 Trump phone, raises so many questions. The main one being, “does the T1 Trump phone even exist”.
Is The Trump T1 Phone Real?
This week, the organisation announced the T1 Phone was available to pre-order. What absolutely baffles me is how does an organisation ever think how they are presenting the phone is in any way credible. From the phone’s pre-order page to posts on social media, there have been completely different phones shown.
Just look at them:
Many have compared the Trump Phone saga to other infamous “scam phones” like the Escobar Phone, marked by questionable claims, unclear product origins, and dramatic marketing.
The product page (on the right above) is the first image that came out. It looks like some sort of iPhone style phone in a “gold” case.
The image used for the T1 Phone pre-order is where the fun really begins.
Spigen Threatens to Sue Trump Mobile
The Trump organisation posted the following image to promote the launch of pre-order for Trump’s T1 Phone:
I’ve had to use quotes here for the T1 Phone in the caption. I’m not sure what’s going on here, but the phone in the pre-order image not matching the phone on the product page should be a big old red flag to everyone who needed it, regardless of what your school report card said back in the day.
Upon closer inspection, it transpires that this image appears to have been a photoshopped image of a Samsung Galaxy S25, pulled from well-known case maker, Spigen. It’s very difficult to deny that the Spigen assets weren’t just referenced, they were directly used, with barely any attempt to disguise their origin. You can even see the Spigen logo on the back of the case/phone.
Spigen shared the Trump Mobile post, simply saying, “lawsuit incoming…”. Goosed has reached out to Spigen for comment but have yet to hear back as to how serious their social media threats of a lawsuit are.
Using another company’s images without permission, especially for commercial and political purposes, could be a straightforward case of copyright infringement. But it could go as far as simply being a bit of social media clout.
If nothing else, it’s completely laughable that the Trump T1 Phone launch is this amateurish. If anyone is giving money to this effort, they deserve to lose their money to a certain extent. Caveat Emptor.
